You and i both know i can't stand toe to toe with you on economic matters, how the numbers play out, etc.
But i'm going to call you out on saying that we have this overwhelmingly high quality of life. For a slim majority it's true that they receive the best health care, best education, highest life expectancy and so forth but you're shitting yourself if you believe the US is providing the best for the most.
but the fact that bill gates is a billionaire and a product of the american capitalism, imo, does not outweigh the 30K people living in East St. Louis.
just because we have the Mayo Clinic in FL does not exscuse the fact that we rank 29th globaly on infant mortality rates -- just below Slovakia (while Sweden, Norway, and Finland rank 4th, 5th,and 6th respectivly)
Just because we have some of the best private institutions of education hasn't put the US at the top of the international charts.
from oecd.com --
The United States has one of the highest levels of inequality with the
average earnings of the richest 10 % of the population 16 times higher
than the poorest 10 percent. The gap between rich and poor in the US
has also widened more rapidly than in most other countries over the
past 20 years.
this is not something to brag about, what about those socialist countries?
again --
In Denmark and Sweden the gap is narrower with the richest 10% earning on average less than five times the poorest.
facny graphs:
compair
to
Perhaps i don't know the answer to how to solve this, that's something you get to come up with, but i do think it's pretty easy to see that with the exception of the top minority, we're not doing as well as you purport. Perhaps we need an adjust where we make our measurements. It's too easy to just take a reading off the top and say "look we're the best" when the whole subjacent layers are strugling. And i've got to say if you're suggesting that the recent past is the model for success, unless you've redefined success for those lucky few, i'm a skeptic despite my lack of knowledge in economics.
